The Parchlands and Darkmoor

[Koniption]

70% fog, 20% cloud , and 10% clear sound about right to me.

The fog definitely helps set the mood in the pics, imo.

Koniption

[Senten]

I suggest, you should add a lot of roots. Darkmoor sounds an evil and really swampy place, so that region must be evil.

So the list:

- Lot of fog as Konip said
- Beautiful, but deadly mushrooms and plants
- Lot of dead trees and stumps with roots
- Magical feeling

What i mean about Magical feeling?

Well. It means, if you enter to these moors, then you can see its very foggy. That's okay, but what about, if you add caves, holes, and etc mistery, which has odd, magical lights?

For example: You are exploring the landscape of Darkmoor. Its 11pm, everything in black. But you can see in the water some purple and blue lights. You go there, and there's interesting beautifull flower and mushrooms, all of them looks tasty. If you aren't argonian, and you touch them, then you will be paralized, or something like that.

So lot of odd things : Beautifull (magical) , but DEADLY.
What do you think?

`SN

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Darkmoor is basically the precursor to Murkwood. I already have the trees for Murkwood which, as you say, are dead trees and stumps with roots. I will be adding some of these to the Eastern sides of Darkmoor for when Murkwood is fully generated. Likewise, mangroves will start to appear along the southern border.

As for the mushroom thing, sure! :yes: This won't be something that appears in the generation but I think we can set up a number of different 'mushroom groves' during landscaping. These might actually provide a decent entrance to the Hist Dimension.

We'll be using spider caves mostly for this region and we already have a new set of cobwebs in the archive just ready for it. I guess I could add more stumps as well. In fact, I may alter the asset replacement notes to include these. As for the holes, it might be cool to have a model of a hole in the ground with the surrounding area on the top covered most of the way over....the PC might then have to enter a burrow in order to get out and get back to the surface.

Anyway, Murkwood will be the much darker and more devastated-looking of the two...

[Senten]

Originally posted by Ibsen's Ghost
Darkmoor is basically the precursor to Murkwood. I already have the trees for Murkwood which, as you say, are dead trees and stumps with roots. I will be adding some of these to the Eastern sides of Darkmoor for when Murkwood is fully generated. Likewise, mangroves will start to appear along the southern border.

As for the mushroom thing, sure! :yes: This won't be something that appears in the generation but I think we can set up a number of different 'mushroom groves' during landscaping. These might actually provide a decent entrance to the Hist Dimension.

We'll be using spider caves mostly for this region and we already have a new set of cobwebs in the archive just ready for it. I guess I could add more stumps as well. In fact, I may alter the asset replacement notes to include these. As for the holes, it might be cool to have a model of a hole in the ground with the surrounding area on the top covered most of the way over....the PC might then have to enter a burrow in order to get out and get back to the surface.

Anyway, Murkwood will be the much darker and more devastated-looking of the two...

Oh yes, i've forgot Murkwood!
Well, the hole mesh is easy i think, and would be pretty cool! Maybe it will be good as a trap! And pretty easy to do!

I mean, we all know Murkwood is very dangerous. What about deadly holes?
A very deep and dark hole mesh, and an alpha map covering the top of it.
And when you wanna walk through of it, you will be fall off, because the alpha map will be non-collisioned.

Or maybe an animal trap covered with leaves. Lot of good things can be here..

Anyways, good to hear you already have trees! Can't wait to see those regions, and the spider caves!

`SN

[Koniption]

Originally posted by Senten
[...]
For example: You are exploring the landscape of Darkmoor. Its 11pm, everything in black. But you can see in the water some purple and blue lights. You go there, and there's interesting beautifull flower and mushrooms, all of them looks tasty. If you aren't argonian, and you touch them, then you will be paralized, or something like that.[...]
`SN

About the lights in the water: what about lights "under" the water as well, like glow-mapped meshes also entered as light objects? In the oceans, many creatures use bioluminescence and light themselves up, as well as some plants. I wonder if lights under the water in Oblivion can be seen from above the water, when the player is on land, though...

KP

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Nice idea....could be worth checking out.... :yes:

[Ibsen's Ghost]

I'll have to try experimenting with Senten's underwater lighting idea later but, in the meantime, here are some shots of the region-generated Darkmoor with a more updated set of LOD files. Bear in mind that some of the trees are noticeably floating. These will, of course, be dealt with during the landscaping stage.

You can also see a very wild-looking shot of a house in Rock Grove. This is 'wild' because there must have been a communication mix-up between myself and sandor which meant that he generated over the RG cells. It shouldn't be too hard to clean it up but it's very tough terrain at the moment. Nevertheless, I quite like the density of the trees.

Btw, I think the swampwater texture may be a fault with my own graphics card and not something in the CS itself...if I'm right then we could have the swampwater enabled in the next esm, perhaps with the weather enabled too.

[Deeza]

Did you manage to fix the swampwater in the end? First time I saw these screens, they look great!

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Yes, the swampwater should now be enabled. Let me know if it's not. Also, if you experience the weird water effect I described then let me know...but I think it's just my graphics card playing up.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Goddamn swampwater is not enabled again. Why does it keep disappearing? I'll need to speak to sandor about getting this sorted.

Anyway, on my travels through the completed Everglades today, I was very pleased by what I saw in Darkmoor. The very large trees help to create a proper canopy for this region that is unlike anything ever seen in Oblivion. All those wanting a genuinely creepy, dark and unnerving approach to BM should be fairly pleased by these shots which show an un-landscaped Darkmoor.

When I eventually get round to creating Murkwood, I think I'll need to use our own cypress trees again to achieve a similar effect, only with darker textures and combined with the Forgotten Forest trees from Razorwing and the Charred Oak trees from Siegfried.